Social Development Fund

Social Development Fund— Social Cohesion Building

The SDF provides the means for community-based initiatives in the SNAs to rapidly access funds in order to undertake activities that will make a contribution to crime prevention. The SDF, through building social capital, is an effective crime prevention intervention in its own right. Since the SDF, projects can serve as a way of introducing and popularising the goals, methods and values of VPUU in the identified SNAs. The SDF promotes trust building and mutual accountability between the resident groups and VPUU

Goals of the Social Development Fund

The SDF is one method of reducing crime and violence in the SNAs. It encourages community projects that aim to change the harmful social culture of the past into a caring developmental culture.
The SDF directs funding to community projects that focus on achieving the following goals:

Removing or alleviating circumstances or factors which lead to poverty and violent crimes

Promoting community cohesion and a healthy communal life

Prevention and elimination of opportunities for crime and violence from occurring and escalating to violence

Promoting gender equality.

The SDF has contributed to the holding many community festivals since 2010. The aim of the festivals are to bring together communities. The intention is to promote understanding, respect and tolerance between groups (building social capital). It is estimated that over 4,500 people have attended festivals held to date.

Impact of SDF

An independent assessment of the impact of the SDF concluded the most powerful impact on organisations funded by the SDF was in terms of an increase in the number of people involved in the project. Two impacts on project leaders were commonly identified: one was an increase in self-confidence, and the other was a perceived increase in skills learned through the project. Success in raising funds for a group that have often been struggling to do this for a long time is clearly a status-enhancing achievement. Over 90% of those who brought SDF funding to their projects report that their status as a role model was strengthened.